Majid Jahangir
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, November 22
The Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT), New Delhi, has issued notices to the Army authorities in Jammu and Kashmir after six convicts in the Machil fake encounter case challanged the verdict of the Summary General Court Martial (SGCM), which awarded life imprisonment to them.
The General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Northern Command, had in September confirmed life imprisonment awarded to Colonel Dinesh Pathania, Captain Upendra, Havildar Devendra Kumar, Lance Naik Lakhmi, Lance Naik Arun Kumar and Rifleman Abbas Hussain.
The six have been convicted for the killing of three youths in a staged encounter in the Machil sector of frontier Kupwara district on the night of April 29, 2010.
After the SGCM verdict, the six convicts approached the AFT, New Delhi, challenging the verdict. All of them moved separate appeals before the tribunal.
The convicts challanged the order of the SGCM on many scores like being arbitrary and against facts and figures. The AFT will scrutinise the order of the SGCM.
Five of the convicts are lodged in jail in their respective hometowns. Territorial Army man Abbas is lodged in jail in Jammu.
Notices have been issued to the General Officer Commanding of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps, Kupwara-based General Officer Commanding of the 28 Infantry Division and many top Army officers in the state by the AFT.
Riyaz Ahmad, Muhammad Shafi and Shahzad Ahmad of Nadihal-Rafiabad in Baramulla were lured by former Special Police Officer Bashir Ahmad Lone and his accomplice Abdul Hameed on the pretext of getting them high-paying jobs and later handed over to the Army for Rs 50,000 each.
The Tribune was the first to publish the story on November 13, 2014, that the SGCM convicted its men for killing three civilians in a staged encounter along the Line of Control in the Machil sector in 2010 and were later branded as foreign militants.